The parable of the two debtors illustrates that love for Christ is directly proportional to one's appreciation of His sacrifice, which in turn is based on the felt depth of one's need. The sermon contrasts the sinful woman's profound gratitude, shown by her anointing Jesus' feet, with Simon the Pharisee's cold formality, highlighting that her abundant love stemmed from her awareness of being forgiven much. The core lesson is that true devotion arises not from the magnitude of past sins, but from the felt sense of personal need and the resulting appreciation for Christ's atoning work. The message concludes by urging listeners to recognize the immensity of their own need and to respond with a love that reflects the infinite value of Christ's sacrifice.
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Scripture this morning is found in the seventh chapter of Luke, beginning at the thirty-sixth verse. Luke seven, thirty-six to fifty. And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him, and he went into the Pharisees' house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus set at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and set at his feet behind him, weeping, and began to wipe his feet with tears, wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
Now when the Pharisee, which had bitten him, saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus' hamstring said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he says, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed him five hundred pence and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.
And turning to the woman, he said to Simon, Seeth thou this woman, I entered into thine house. Thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven, for, or therefore she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.
And they that set it meet with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, Thy faith has saved thee. Go in peace. Think perhaps of all the parables. This is one of my favorites. The parable of the two debtors. The two debtors. We've noticed, first of all, the three characters involved in this parable. First of all, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ. God incarnate, the Son of God. This incident took place in the second year of our Lord's ministry, which was a year of popularity.
Jesus ministered in the flesh for about three and a half years, as I see it. The first year was a year of relative obscurity. In fact, from the time of our Lord's temptation until he began his great Galilean ministry, that whole year is only found in the Gospel of John. and it was a year of relative obscurity. The second year was a year of great popularity. Jesus was a very popular person at one time. His name was on everyone's lips. The last year was a year of opposition, culminating in the cross.
And so right in the middle of that year of popularity, we have this incident. The second person involved was the Pharisees. As we saw in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, a Pharisee was the strict Orthodox sect of the Jews, probably the best of the day and yet largely cold and formal. Evidently this man had heard Jesus, had possibly even seen him, and now he invites the Lord to a dinner, possibly a patronizing gesture. but also possibly to observe him more closely, to see if possibly he were what he claimed to be, to test whether he really were a prophet.
I suppose he was somewhat like Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night for this same purpose. The third person involved was a sinful woman. And of course, in Scripture, to be a sinful woman is Another way of saying she was a harlot, an immoral woman. Of course, at the time of this incident, she was no longer that. She has been changed, but she was at one time. Why did she happen to be here? Well, evidently she had heard Jesus before, and she had believed the message. She had believed in him, and she had been saved. And now she is no longer a sinful woman.
She is a believer. And so Jesus Christ, a Pharisee, and a formerly sinful woman. Notice next of all the incidents. Jesus, I say, has been invited to the house of this Pharisee. He accepts the invitation. And he is sitting at the table. The woman enters behind and... begins to wash our Lord's feet and to wipe them with the hairs of her head. It was easy to do that in those days because people reclined about a table with their feet outward and an uninvited guest could very easily slip in the door and do exactly what she did.
What did she do? Well, she stood behind the Lord Jesus or possibly knelt Words fail to express her gratitude and appreciation, and tears begin to fall, and they fall upon our Lord's feet. His sandals have been removed by a servant, as was the custom. In her embarrassment, she has no towel, and before she knows it, she's wiping her feet with the hairs of her head. Feeling that this is not a fitting way to treat the Savior, She anoints his feet with ointment and kisses his feet. Now notice the twofold reaction.
The way Simon reacted to this and the way Jesus did. The Pharisees' name, of course, was Simon. He has the answer to the question that he was asking. Is this man a prophet? In those days, a person said that a prophet could discern people's characters. And if a person was of low character, he would have nothing to do with it. And so the Pharisee says, this man can't be a prophet, for he says, if he were, he would know what manner of woman this is that touches him. Either he cannot discern her character, or having discerned it, he permits her to touch him.
In either case, he cannot be a prophet. Did you ever notice in the Gospels that the Pharisees were determined that Jesus wasn't going to do what he came to do, namely to call sinners to repent? Jesus said, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. They that need or hold don't need a possession. They that are sick. And if you're going to call people, you have to go where they are, but they were determined he wasn't going to do this. So Simon's reaction was a negative one. This man's not a prophet. What was our Lord's reaction? Well, first of all, toward the woman, he accepted her worship.
He saw her not as a sinful woman, but as a believer. But he also saw the heart of this Pharisee. And to him, he directed this parable. Simon, he said, I have somewhat to say to these. and he said, Master, say on. And then he told the parable. A certain creditor had two debtors. One owed him five hundred pence, the other fifty. It isn't necessary to translate that into our currency. The proportion is what's important. One owed him five hundred, the other fifty. One owed him ten times as much as the other.
That's the important thing. And when neither could pay, He frankly, and of course the word frankly means freely, graciously forgave them both. Cancel the dead. And then he asked the Pharisee, Which of these two do you think will love the man the most? Well, Simon said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave the most. And he said, You rightly judged. That is the correct answer. And then he makes the application, I came into your house. You didn't kiss me.
You didn't anoint my feet. You didn't manifest any love for me. But this woman did. And then the conclusion, therefore, her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much. Now the way that reads, it seems that she loved before her sins were forgiven. But that is wrong, of course. It should be therefore. Her sins, which were many, are forgiven. Therefore, she loved much. The love follows the forgiveness. It doesn't precede it. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. Now, obviously, in the parable, if you interpret it, the creditor is Christ himself.
And the two debtors are Simon and this woman. The woman is the one that owes five hundred pence. the one that owes fifty. And therefore much was forgiven her, and therefore she loved much. Little was forgiven the Pharisees, therefore he loved little, if at all. Now what I like to do in this parable, I want to make the main point of this parable. And this is the precious truth that I would like to leave with you, if nothing else. And then I'm going to go back and draw some secondary lessons. and then return to the main point. What is the main point of this parable? And I think it is simply this.
We will love the Lord Jesus Christ in direct proportion as we value what he has done for us. And we will value what he has done for us in direct proportion as we have felt a sense of need. Is that not the main point? And let me repeat it. We will love the Lord Jesus Christ in direct proportion as we value what he has done for us. And we will value what he has done for us in direct proportion as we have felt a sense of need. But I think there are some secondary lessons and I think we're justified in drawing these, although I think a parable has one main point primarily.
But I'm going to draw some secondary lessons. First of all, I think we have something about salvation in this. First of all, I think sin is a debt. There are different ways to look at sin. I think in the Greek language is in the English. There are many words expressing what sin is. It's iniquity. It's transgression. It's missing the mark. It's falling short. But I think one of the best words for sin is that it incurs a debt. It brings us into God's debt. We owe something. And certainly this parable would indicate a certain creditor had two debtors.
And so sin does incur a debt. Secondly, no one has anything to pay. The parable says when they had nothing to pay. What can a sinner do to repay his debt? What can he do to cancel this debt? Well, there's nothing he can do. I think sometimes a study of the catechisms is helpful if they're rightly used. And I was looking at the Heidelberg Catechism once, and it had some good questions, teaching the young people. One of them is what is sin, and so on, and then It came to define sin as a debt. And then the answer was, the question was asked, can sinful men in any way pay this debt?
And then the answer, in no wise, on the contrary, we daily increase the debt. And isn't that true? We don't pay it. We just daily increase it because we're sinners and all continually fall short of the glory of God, even the most spiritual. No one has anything to pay. And so, if we're ever going to be saved, it has to be on this basis. When they had nothing to pay, he frankly, freely, graciously forgave them. And that's the only way anyone was ever saved. But I would like to make one more point. When anyone cancels a debt and doesn't require the person to pay it, he pays the debt himself.
If a debt is owed, somebody has to pay it, don't they? That's the mistake of the liberal branches of the church. They don't believe in a substitutionary atonement. They say God doesn't require anybody to pay the debt. He just graciously cancels it and nobody pays. Well, wouldn't that be wonderful? But it just doesn't happen that way. If you owe somebody five hundred dollars and he says, I'll forgive you, he pays the debt, doesn't he? He takes it upon Himself. He suffers the loss. It's inevitable. And so when God forgives us, when Jesus Christ forgives us, He has to pay the debt, and He paid it at Calvary.
Somebody had to pay in the very nature of the case. He took it upon Himself. And so no one has anything to pay. We're all debtors. And if we're ever going to be saved, it's on this basis. But I would like to draw some more lessons in another realm, namely concerning love for the Lord Jesus Christ, devotion, affection. That stands out in this parable, doesn't it? The woman loved much because she was forgiven much. This leads me to believe that God, our Savior, Christ, wants our love more than anything else.
He wants us to love Him. I think He wants our love more than He wants our service. Now it is true that love for Jesus will motivate us to serve us. But service without love is a barren thing. You remember what our Lord said to the church at Ephesus? He complimented the church. It was a working church, a discerning church. But then he just more or less cancels everything out and says, I have somewhat against you. You've left your first love. For what good is service if you've left your first love? It's a barren thing. It's a tedious thing.
Last night we were speaking about Theo McCully, the brother of Ms. Livingston, is it not? And I remember hearing him preach possibly the Easter Sunday before he went to be with the Lord. And I remember him telling an illustration that I've heard before, and you've heard before, there's various versions of it, but it gets the point across that a certain man was going to leave, I believe as it were, and he was going to have a certain meeting with his daughter. and they were going to have an hour of fellowship each evening before he left, something like that.
But lo and behold, she didn't show up for the hour of fellowship. It just wasn't there. But the last evening she came and she said, and he said, where have you been? Well, she said, I've been working on this beautiful gift for you. And instead of coming for the hour of fellowship, I've been retiring to work on this gift, and I want to give it to you. Well, he said, you know, I appreciate this gift, but how much rather would I have had your fellowship, your presence, rather than the gift? Well, isn't that true? God wants our fellowship. He wants our love more than even our service.
And then he wants our love more than our giving. Love will motivate people to give. If you love the Lord, you're going to give of your substance, of your time. But giving without love is an empty thing. God just doesn't want us, our gift, because without love they're meaningless, aren't they? That's true on the human plane, isn't it? I heard a man give the illustration once, I think it was in Memphis, of J. Allen Blair, as many of you might know. of a certain woman that was before a marriage counselor and she was unhappy in her marriage relationship.
She said, My husband showers everything upon me except his love. She said, This past Christmas, he came down Christmas morning and handed me the keys of a new car. He said, There's a Cadillac out in the driveway. It's yours. She said, I don't want a Cadillac. I want his affection. I want his love. and that's the very one thing He will not give me. I read of an experiment that some did in, I think it was in Germany, during World War I or possibly two. The German people were going to take a group of babies, say thirty, they were going to give them the best treatment that babies could be given.
Their food was perfect, their environment. They were given everything but absolutely no affection. No affection of any kind. You know what happened to those babies? Some of them just mysteriously died. They just couldn't find any reason. They just up and died. Quite a number more of them were mentally retarded. And some were actually almost to the point of being imbeciles. And very few, if any, were normal. Why? They had everything except affection. And that's the one thing they needed. I think God wants our affection more than He wants us to grow in knowledge.
You know the fact that you know a lot about the Bible and you can give a learned exposition of some passage doesn't necessarily mean you love the Lord. You can do that when you're out of fellowship. And I know that by experience. But you have to be a little careful the topic you choose. If you're out of fellowship, speak on prophecy. That's always good. You can speak of that and be out of fellowship. But don't speak on something like this if you're out of fellowship. So I trust I'm in fellowship this morning. I couldn't do much with this parable if I weren't. Have you ever noticed in Scripture that the men that were really outstanding are the men that loved God?
Or they had their faults? Abraham. a friend of God. He loved God so much that he was willing to offer Isaac. I realize that's primarily a test of faith, but love was involved also, willing to offer Isaac because he loved God so much. Think of Jacob. All Jacob, his very name, meant supplantor, cheater, but how he loved God. In his very birth, he was grabbing his brother by the heel. He was reaching out for God. And he wrestled at Penial. And the angel, the messenger, who we believe to be the incarnate Christ, said, Let me go for the morning break.
He said, I won't let you go. He blessed me. And he did bless him. I think of David. Oh, man, that's his fault. But God called him a man after his own heart. And if any epitaph you can write on my tombstone, just put that. a man after God's own heart. Peter, oftentimes we say John was the apostle that Jesus loved. Well, maybe Peter was the one that loved Jesus. Three times Jesus said, Lovest thou me. He said, Lord, you know that I love you. Not only does the Lord value any expression of love, but he takes note of it.
You know, he noticed that Simon gave him no water for his feet, no kiss, no oil for his head. He noticed those things. And my friend, he notices when we are backslidden in hearts. No time for prayer, no expression of thanks, no desire to meet with the people of God in worship and praise. He takes note of those things. but he also takes note of any evidence of love. What did this woman do? She didn't do much. She washed his feet. She wiped them. She anointed them. Anybody could have done that.
No great service. It didn't take any great ability. And yet he took note of it. So with us. Maybe we don't have any great gifts. We certainly have some, but We can at least love the Lord and gladden His heart when we manifest it. You know, I think today, once again, I want to be critical. Obviously I am. I keep saying that, but not in a bad sense, I hope. I think there is in the Lord's service today rather a lack of a real love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's quite a bit of self-seeking today. And you ought to guard against this. Of course, your wife sort of keeps you humble in this respect, and that's good. Do we want the praise of man? Come down here and say, man, what a wonderful speaker. He was, I think that's better than the one the week before. Oh, it's so easy to fall into that. So much magnifying of personalities. It's a strange thing that you can take a person in one place teaching exactly the same thing as one in another. And this fellow has a good personality, he's a good speaker, and he can attract five hundred people and this fellow won't have fifty.
It's the same message. What's the difference? And then today there's so much sentimentality. He was talking to Brother Willie about this thing of shedding tears. Some people think that if you go to a service and shed tears, that you really had a wonderful service. Not necessarily. I think it was at the second Cumberland there in Memphis when Brother Capehart was there. Friends from Memphis know all about this. It was telling of a certain evangelist that I think it was in that church. And he preached his heart out about the death of Christ. and nobody shed a tear. There was no reaction of any kind. And so he thought he would try an experiment.
He told a story about a little boy and his dog. Now this happened. And this little dog, he just loved this dog, and the dog was killed. And when he finished that sermon, there wasn't a dry eye. Everybody was sobbing and weeping. A little boy and his dog. Well, sometimes we do shed tears, but Sentimentality is not necessarily love. You can turn the lights down low. You can get soft music, and you can bring tears about anybody's eyes. But I want to return. This is not a long parable, but it is a very precious one.
And so I'm going to return to the main point of the parable. And I think that it found in verse forty-seven, Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much, or therefore she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. Now I want to say, first of all, what I don't think that means. And that's always a good approach. First of all, I do not think it means that the greater sinner you have been before you're saved, that the more you'll love Christ after you're saved. Do you think that's what it means?
Not at all. But don't you sometimes get the impression from some testimonies that that's true? It seems like when you have a public testimony in some of these big meetings, they always get somebody that's had a lurid past. Boy, he fell in the depths of sin. I go away from such testimony and say, man, he was really a big sinner, wasn't he? That's the emphasis rather than he had a great Savior. I suppose as a man saved off a skid row up in Chicago, an alcoholic, a whino, I suppose he would have a great love for the Lord. But I am not persuaded that he would have any greater love than a child born in a Christian home that has accepted Christ in the early years and has never fallen in the depths of sin.
I think he would love the Lord just as much, don't you? If not, we could almost wish that we had been great sinners. And then we'd have a greater love for the Lord. That hardly makes sense. I do not think that it's true, scripturally or experientially, that the greater sinner you are, the greater you'll love Christ afterwards. Secondly, I am not persuaded that the woman had a greater sin than Simon. All the world would say, oh yes, a fallen woman, that's always the worst. Is that necessarily any worse than self-righteous pride? Possibly not.
Not in the sight of God. I suppose from God's vantage point, we all look pretty equal, don't we? We see you horizontally and we see people, this is a good man, this is better, this is worse. You get up high enough, everything looks kind of level, doesn't it? It reminds me of the story of the father was telling a little boy how far it was to one of the distant stars. And the little boy said, well, father, is that measuring from the top of the ground or from the basement? Well, I suppose that's in the sight of God. We're all pretty equal. What does it mean then?
If it doesn't mean that she had the greater sin or so on? Well, I think it simply means this. she felt that she had the greater sin. It's not how big a sinner you are, but how great a sinner you feel that you are. Isn't that it? Therefore, we love Jesus Christ in direct proportion as we value what he has done for us. What did Jesus do for us? What is the value of his death? What did he accomplish? Well, it's in direct proportion as we feel a sense of need. If you feel you had a great need, then Jesus Christ met a great need, you'll have a great love.
If you had a slight need, he met a slight need, you'll have a slight love. And my friend, if somebody has no need, then Jesus didn't accomplish anything, he'll have no love. Have you ever been in a city and got lost? Well, I have many times. In fact, almost any time I enter any city. I have a gift for getting lost. I've been lost. I remember one time when I stopped a man on the street and asked him, how do you get to a certain place? He told me. I didn't bow and scrape before him and send him thank you cards the rest of my life. I gave him a polite thanks and went my way.
Why? Well, I had a slight need. I could have asked somebody else. He met a slight need. I have a slight appreciation. But suppose I were in a burning building and I'm about to perish and somebody comes up and at great pain and loss and danger rescues me. I don't give a polite thanks to that man. I do send him thank-you notes because he met a great need. and I appreciate it. I love him much. This Pharisee, Simon, if he had any love at all, it was slight. I doubt if he had any. And therefore he had practically no love.
The woman felt she had a great need. And Jesus met a great need. And therefore she had a great love. Most people today don't feel any sense of need. Do they? Go ask them. Oh, I'm not perfect, they say, but I guess I'm just as good as the next person and so on. No wonder they don't appreciate the death of Christ. What good was it if you don't need it? And therefore they have no love. Some people perhaps have a slight sense of need, a slight appreciation, a slight love. I trust that everyone in this room this morning realizes what Jesus Christ accomplished at what cost on the cross of Calvary, that the Son of God, the spotless, became sin for us, and we can never appreciate freely what that means, because we're sinners, we're so used to sin.
What did it mean for the spotless Lamb of God to become a sin offering? What did it mean? Well, it took a great sacrifice because we had a great need, and therefore we love Him much. And so I would ask you this morning, how much do you love Jesus Christ? How much? You will love Jesus Christ in direct proportion as you value what He has done for you. And you will value what He has done for you. in direct proportion as you feel he's met your need.
I'd like us to sing a beautiful hymn that expresses this. Number four, thirty-nine. Give me a sight, O Savior, of thy wondrous love to me, of the love that brought thee down to earth to die on Calvary. O make me understand it. Help me to take it in. But it meant to be. the holy one to bear away my sin. Number four thirty-nine. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Oh, may we have to stand up, but we will pray to you in heaven. Come here, come here, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, Thank you.
Thank you. And hold your hand to Jesus, Lord, in the hand of His hand.
Thank you. Our Father, there are times when words are inadequate to express.
the feelings of our heart. And sometimes, Father, no matter what the gifts might be, we feel that all we can say is thank you. And we do, Father, thank you for this great gift made possible at such an infinite cost. For we surely cannot fully comprehend what it meant for this salvation to be provided. What did it mean to thee, Father, to give up thy son and forsake him and watch him die? And what did it mean to Jesus to undergo that?
The physical suffering, terrible enough in themselves, and yet the spiritual suffering, which surely was greater. And Father, while we cannot fully comprehend it, we know that which it accomplished. And we would Pray that we might fit into the category of this woman who loves much because much was forgiven. Bless us as we go forth from this place today to manifest all of this in our lives as we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.